Divest from fossil fuels

Month: April 2014

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Fossil Free Oxfordshire is writing to all candidates in the forthcoming Oxford City Council elections on Thursday 22 May to ask about their views on our campaign. We will publish all their responses (or lack of them) here, so keep checking in!

Fossil Free Oxfordshire is calling on both Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council to

Immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuels.

Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years.

Why is this important?

Our local authorities have a duty to look out for the public good. Fossil fuels are in direct conflict with the public good: investing in them poses a risk both to investors and to the planet. So Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council should take a moral, political and economic stand against them by taking our money away from fossil fuel companies and putting it into investments that are less at risk from climate change legislation and more compatible with our values.

Divestment from fossil fuels would make a powerful statement that the fossil fuel industry is morally and economically unviable, and that the people of Oxfordshire wish to support an alternative, sustainable energy future that will leave the planet in a shape that allows us, our children and grandchildren to live safely on it.

Financial research has called into question the valuations of fossil fuel companies due to their reliance on reserves which may become unburnable if carbon legislation comes into effect.